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Parents say no to iPhone Shaking Baby game

Apple has been forced to remove a baby shaking iPhone application from its online App store after a torrent of complaints by parents.

To play the controversial application, devised by Sikalosoft, you have to stop a baby crying on your iPhone screen, by violently shaking the phone.

If you shake it hard enough, two red crosses appear over the infant’s face to indicate that the youngster has ‘quietened down’.

Apple has been forced to remove the application from its store after parents and child protection groups expressed their horror over the game.

Patrick Donohue, who founded the Sarah Jane Brain Foundation, wrote a letter to Apple chief executive, Steve Jobs, saying, "As the father of a three year old who was shaken by her baby nurse when she was only five days old, breaking three ribs, both collarbones and causing a severe brain injury, words cannot describe my reaction. You have no idea the number of children your actions have put at risk by your careless, thoughtless and reckless behaviour."

In its promotion for the app, Sikalosoft says to "never, never shake a baby" but Marilyn Barr, founder of the US National Center on Shaken Baby Syndrome (SBS) said it was not only “making fun of SBS” but “actually encouraging it”.